“The thing that scares me, that’s actually the direction that I need to pursue.”

Paul Riedner was a deep-sea diver in the U.S. Army who served in the Middle East. He’s currently the Executive Director of Veteran Resilience Project, a nonprofit dedicated to helping Minnesota veterans get free access to Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Paul also makes the Resilience Project podcast that helps veterans share their stories.

On the podcast, Paul talks about growing up in Red Wing Minnesota and then going to teach in China. He talks about his constant search for knowledge and discovery and the role that played in his deciding to enroll in the U.S. Army during the Iraq war.

Paul talks about what he’s learned as a deep-sea diver, what serving in Iraq taught him about the financial and emotional costs of war and about why there is a such a disconnect in the United States between veterans and a public that has largely not served. And Paul talks openly about the work of moving a veteran from PTSD down a path towards healing trauma and getting back to being of service.